A common need in industry is that of having to transfer an article from one conveyor to another conveyor. The word "article", even though used in the singular, is meant to mean an individual article, a container filled with articles, a package, a group of articles or any other item transferred from one conveyor to another conveyor. In this regard, it has been known to use a magnetic pickup device to assist in a conveyor to conveyor transfer such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,490. It has also been known to use a vacuum cup and a vacuum chamber below a conveyor having longitudinally spaced holes to facilitate positioning of articles in a conveying operation such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,316. Vacuum cups have also been used to assist in transferring articles as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,490. However, in many types of industrial environments and particularly in the space restricted environment often found in poultry packaging plants the types of known conveyor to conveyor transfer systems are not suited to the environment.
No existing conveyor to conveyor transfer apparatus so far as is known has used a first conveyor with longitudinally spaced openings of sufficient size to permit an article to be lifted from a second conveyor located below the first conveyor through an opening in the first conveyor and then deposited onto the first conveyor for subsequent discharge by the first conveyor to another downstream work station. It is recognized that by positioning the articles to be transferred directly beneath a transfer conveyor, the lifting transfer mechanism needs only to move vertically downward and upward, which saves the motion and associated time of moving sidewards and returning as in prior transfer apparatus, thus improving efficiency.
It thus becomes a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved conveyor to conveyor transfer apparatus, system and method particularly suited to conditions in the poultry packaging industry and in which at least one of the conveyors in the system permits an article to be raised through and deposited onto such conveyor. Other objects will become apparent as the description proceeds.